[In order not to write twice same thing and because this can be of interest to many developers, I will reply to some of the comments of Wouter Verhelst and Anthony Towns in this separate thread.]
My thesis is that the invariant sections do not contradict DFSG. Notice that in this particular email message I do not claim that the invariant sections do not make the documents non-free. I only say that DFSG says nothing about whether the invariant sections make a document free or non-free. This is the portion of DFSG that matters here: Derived Works The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software. Notice that DFSG do not say "arbitrary modifications". This is important because "arbitrary modifications" are not allowed by GPL and by many other licenses. For example GPL says If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. It doesn't matter how strong this GPL-restriction is. The point is that GPL does not allow arbitrary modifications and that DFSG do not require arbitrary modifications. If we want to decide whether some particular restrictions in the license make the license non-free or not, we have to use external to DFSG arguments. For example everybody is free to decide that the invariant sections make the document non-free but this can not be a consequence from DFSG. My personal addition to DFSG is this: the license must allow us to improve the program and/or the documentation. I think GFDL is free because GFDL allows us to improve the document (even the invariant sections can be improved as I demonstrated in my proposal). However you see that my conclusion is not based only on DFSG. It can not be based only on DFSG because DFSG say nothing about what modifications must be allowed by the license. Anton Zinoviev -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
